December 2017

December 24, 2017

A dressmaker’s model can be erotic, or comic. Just look at the women who wear the extravagant frocks designed by Reynolds Woodcock as played to austere perfection by Daniel Day-Lewis in Paul Thomas Anderson’s film Phantom Thread. You have Barbara Rose, a wealthy rotund patron with the great Harriet Harris in the role, and you have Alma, a young Vicky Krieps, a waitress Woodcock brings into his life, who seems quite malleable until she learns how to take charge. House of Woodcock runs with efficiency, led by Cyril, Woodcock’s sister. In this role, the elegant Lesley Manville turns icy and knowing commanding seamstresses, fitters, and her brother, while understanding his whimsical needs. Set in London’s couture world of the 1950’s, Phantom Thread starts as a period drama, a love story for a character ruled by aesthetics. This tale—with its domestic detail-- turns kinky and subversive without becoming perverse. Yeow!!!!

December 20, 2017

The Lucille Lortel Theater has been sold out for weeks, ever since the MCC production of School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play arrived with its stellar cast of young women. Set in 1986 Ghana, Jocelyn Bioh’s play can be seen as an African variation of Tina Fey’s Mean Girls, with the action unfolding in a school cafeteria. A group of girls are abuzz, anticipating the arrival of a representative of a global beauty competition, clearly a way out of the provincial town. But just as Paulina (Maameyaa Boafo), the class bully with cocky self-absorption takes her candidacy for granted, Ericka (Nabiyah Be), a new girl arrives. The light skinned daughter of a local cocoa tycoon, Ericka grew up in the States. Light skinned, of course, equates with beauty, and when the rep, Eloise (Zainab Jah), arrives, Miss Ghana of 1966, as she repeats endlessly lest you forget this woman’s climb, she sees her own ticket to promotion in the new girl.

December 17, 2017

For her new show at Joe’s Pub, the latest in her New Year’s tradition of guiding her fans into the future, Sandra Bernhard has turned “Sandyland” into “Sandemonium,” registering our current political times. As she told me in a recent phone conversation, her new Sandy show, from December 26 through 31, is a nod to craziness, and with the wisdom and sanity of someone who’s been here before, plus a touch of her signature sass and snark, her plan is to teach us how to escape despair and still have fun. “This too shall pass,” she consoles. “Trump’s not going to be president forever. We had Nixon. We had Attila the Hun, and humans lived through that.

December 15, 2017

When Warren Beatty was honored by the Museum of the Moving Image last year, his wife Annette Bening, the star of Mike Mills’ Twentieth Century Women gave a speech. This year, with Annette Bening as tributee, Warren Beatty rose to the occasion, introducing the clip for Bening’s work in his Bugsy, which just happens to be the movie they were making when they fell in love. With a what-the-f--k attitude, Annette Bening wowed the gala crowd with a 23 minute speech, including the story of just how she managed to corral this longtime boulevardier known to consort with many ladies. “He tells it better,” she began, and launched into their dialogue:

December 13, 2017

“Every time you make a documentary,” said Errol Morris accepting a lifetime achievement award at the 2nd Annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards ceremony in November, “you get to reinvent the form. When I sold my series, Wormwood to Netflix, I sold it as the Everything Bagel.” This week, at a celebration for Wormwood at the Campbell Apartments, tucked into Grand Central Station, Peter Sarsgaard, who plays Frank Olson in reenactments of the events of 1953, when a real life scientist mysteriously (maybe drunk, or having a bad LSD trip) “jumped” out of a window at the Statler Hilton Hotel, could not reveal all of the ingredients of this finely wrought hybrid documentary, Errol Morris at a new level of invention.

December 08, 2017

Comedian Tina Fey and Don Katz founder and CEO of Audible, Inc. were honored by New York Stage and Film at their winter gala this week. Attending the dinner at Pier Sixty with the hope of scoring some tickets to Hamilton—yes, still—I was soon apprised that the bidding for them started at $4,000. I could dream on. This was a night for funny with Tina Fey feted, introduced by Andrea Martin, and with Dana Delany introducing Don Katz. Tina Fey’s posse included some funny women Carol Kane and Ellie Kemper. But first an incredible line up of actors including John Slattery and Jayne Houdyshell read vignettes to illustrate the magic of Audible.

December 01, 2017

“Fairy tales are not for children,” said Guillermo del Toro, introducing his fabulous film The Shape of Water at a special screening this week. “They were created during times of war, pestilence, famine,” he went on, explaining the oft occurrence of violence, mutilation, and monsters. His masterpiece, Pan’s Labyrinth, a fable seen through the eyes of a child is now updated in this movie full of awe and unlikely romance featuring a creature from the sea as his new “innocent.” His savior is a mute cleaning woman in a Baltimore research facility, Elisa, a gorgeously realized role from Sally Hawkins. Early on during this award season, this performance, a tour de force of facial expressions and fanciful nods to movie musical genres, was high on the list for Best Actress. Now with the opening of the film, Sally Hawkins should be first up on that list. For many, The Shape of Water is the film of the year.